My wife and I are newbies to cruising, and have decided to give Carnival a try.

We are sailing from Rome for a 12 day cruise onboard the Liberty in October. I have not made my reservations yet, as I am not sure if it would be cheaper booking through an agency or one of those online site like expedia, or booking directly through the Carnival website. Any thoughts? I am located in Canada by the way (if that affects anything).

Since we have a limited budget, we decided to go with the interior staterooms. However, from the pictures on the Carnival website, I only saw pics where they have 2 small seperate beds in the room. Are there no interior rooms with 1 queen size bed? Or do we have to choose the pricier Oceanview rooms to get a decent sized bed?

Also, what does Guaranteed availability mean? If I make a reservation and pay for it, dosn't that mean I am already guaranteed a room?

Also, hows the weather like in that region in the month of October? Would it be raining lots?

Welcome to cruising, you will have a great time and will be hooked after your trip. I can help with some of your questions..

Booking...Shop around..Typically, Carnival does not allow other agencies to sell cheaper than they charge. After booking, continue to monitor the price and if it goes down, contact your TA or Carnival, whomever you booked through and they should give you cash back or a shipboard credit. The Carnival PVP's are known for great service and if you book through a TA, Carnival will not answer any questions, you have to work through the TA from that point forward.

Interior room is good as you don't spend that much time in the room, to much to do on the cruise. The beds can be pushed together to make a king, just ask your room steward to do so and they will gladly help.

Guarenteed: This means that you book but do not select a room immediately, it will be assigned at time of departure. The guarentee is you will get a room of at least the catagory you book. Example, 4A guarentee will get you at minimum, the 4A room. Often, this is the way people get upgrades. On our last trip, we booked 4A and ended up in an ocean view room. The most important thing booking gauarentee is, book the minimum room you will be happy with so if you don't get upgraded, you still end up satisfied.

Weather: I have no idea, but if you search the web, you can find sites that will tell you the average temp and rainfall for anywhere in the world.

Liberty: Have not sailed Liberty, but have sailed Celebration and Victory and read many reviews on Liberty. Carnival has one common theme, the ships are clean, well cared for, and the service is always great.

I would always recommend booking through a cruise-specialized travel agent.

As for the ship, I sailed on the "Carnival Liberty" last year with my brother, and he and his wife spent their honeymoon onboard last month. They loved the ship. It is fairly toned down for a Carnival ship, new and clean.

I love the Mediterranean during spring and fall, as the climate is so much better for enjoying the ports of call than during the hot summer months. You might encounter rain and lower temperatures here and there (paricularly in Venice), but it's still a great month for a Med cruise.

you can have the room steward put the 2 twins bed together to make a nice king size bed. all the beds in the cabins are twins and they just put them together. weather in Italy area in Oct. is a little chilly in morning but it warms up nicely we were there for a week stay in Oct. one year it also showers unexpectly, we did have to turn the heat on one or two nights in our hotel room but just to chase the chill away it is absolutly beautiful in Oct. there, your guarenteed room just means you may get upgraded as time passes to higher deck same catagory is a gamble sometimes you get lucky sometimes you dont we have done them on 4 cruises and were pleasently surprised enjoy the cruise I envy you one day that is my dream cruise fran

My boyfriend and I have been on a lot of cruises for the simple fact that they are the cheapest way to vacation. We are going on the Oct Europe Cruise out of Rome and booked about 8 months ago. The price is up from when we booked it but down from a few weeks ago. We booked through Cruise.com.

As for your questions:
we always book an interior room - you are correct all the interior are 2 beds but for couples they connect the bed and it becomes a king bed.

I hear the weather is the same way in Europe as it is in the New England states. Friends of ours from Italy said Oct is the best time of year to go.

Guaranteed means you get a room but you do not get a room number at the time of booking.

Please feel free to email me if you decide to go on the trip - transportation from the airport from research is expensive for 2 people but discounted if you have 4 or more people.

Happy booking - maybe we will see you on the cruise (we're going on the 10th)/